I'm
a big fan of art and luckily I am also able to draw,
paint and sculpt. However, for many folks, creating art
is something of a challenge (if not completely impossible)
when it comes to producing something which they conceive
of as ART. For those of you who take photos and who also
enjoy playing with your images, Photoshop and several
plug-ins have enabled you to create art-like images.
Snap Art helps you create images that evoke the feeling
and style of many traditional and real world art styles.

The
Snap Art plug-in consists of 10 Photoshop-compatible
plug-in filters, each of which creates a very distinctive
effect. Effects include; oil paint, impasto, pastel,
pencil sketch, pen and ink, Pointillism, Comics,
Watercolor and others. It is very similar in the
range of effects it creates, to some of the styles
I've found in other artistic effects emulation plug-ins.
Although it won't turn you into an artist, Snap Art
is very easy to use and the results are much more
configurable than most other similar plug-ins.

I
tend to use tools like this in combination with the
other features in Photoshop and also with my Wacom
graphics tablet for line work. I found that I wasn't
overly impressed with the pencil sketch and watercolor
styles, but several other styles were very useful.
My favorites so far are oil paint, impasto and comics.

In addition
to the style presets there are several key settings which
allow you to modify the default settings including tone,
canvas, and lighting. The capability to save your own presets
is an excellent feature.

While
many of the Snap Art plug-in effects are cool, they can
also be created with
Photoshop itself using its native filters and effects. By
putting all the controls in a powerful interface what Snap
Art does is take all the fuss and time out of looking for
and trying to remember what combination of filters to use.
Snap Art could be improved by allowing some kind of quick
switching mode so that you can move from style to style more
quickly.

Cons: Some
of the presets are not quite evocative of the style being
emulated.

Pros: Easy
to use. Highly configurable. Ability to save user settings.
Snap Art is aimed and priced at all users of photo based
software. Although many of the effects created with the
Snap Art plug-in can be achieved using Photoshop alone,
Snap Art makes the process of creating your art easy because
it places all the necessary controls in an easy to access
interface. Recommended.